FREDERICK, Md. — When Valley Christian Church sought a younger demographic and re-named itself The Living Room last year, an unexpected problem sprang up: 60 percent of calls and visitors to the church are now people thinking it’s a home furnishings store.

“We find couples in the foyer looking for the sleeper sofas,” says associate pastor Zach Thompson. “Some of them just won’t believe we’re a church.”

Churches that have strayed from easily identifiable names are finding the confusion to be a headache. The Refuge, a congregation of mostly 20-something believers in Boise, often gets calls from law enforcement officers who want to drop off battered women, thinking it’s a shelter.

The Gathering Place in Denver, a congregation of 250 near Boulder, gets dozens of calls a week from local New Age practitioners, especially leading up to the summer and winter solstices.

“No, we do not offer drum circles, solstice celebrations or pagan ritual rooms,” says the church secretary, rolling her eyes.

She repeats the line at least eight times a day, she says.

Some churches have chosen to install voice mail systems that clarify what the institution is, even though this disrupts the sense of personal care they wish to project.

“Our creativity got out in front of our common sense,” says the pastor of His Place, a newly re-named church in New England, where half of daily inquiries are now from people who think it’s a tavern or a strip joint. “People get pretty angry when they realize we don’t have a happy hour.”

The church board is thinking of going back to something more conventional like Family Christian Center.

“It may be boring, but at least you don’t have to explain it,” says the pastor. •